Security in Knowledge Sharing

As a sequel to Delegation, I’d like to talk about my experience with mentoring and sharing knowledge. I cannot delegate if the delegatees do not know how to do the job I want them to do. For a novice in the team, it had to be teaching. For someone with a good level of knowledge, it had to be mentoring. For someone who has enough experience, it is only coaching needed. In either of these methods, I needed to pass down the knowledge.

There were some few months of my management period when I felt like a star because people could sense that within the team, only I knew so much.. But this was to my own detriment. I had to do the jobs myself and I could not delegate. My system almost crashed because of excess work load and I almost broke down.

My vacation was fast approaching. I wondered what would happen when I am away? It would not tell well of me if the team could not survive in my absence. It then dawned on me that I had to pass down knowledge.

This knowledge sharing came through teaching, hands on training, developing manuals and procedures they could follow, coaching and mentoring. Yes, it was a month of spending extra hours but it paid off. Not only did the team members have the confidence to work independently, they had materials to refer to in my absence.

I know that there are some who feel passing down knowledge would make them irrelevant. On the contrary, passing down knowledge freed me to do other things and prepared me for higher responsibility. I felt more valuable having shared knowledge rather than hoarding it to myself.

What’s your take on this?

Easy Lies the Head that Delegates

I used to be a Do-It-Myself Champion (even evident in the analysis of my love language).

That was how I was piling up work and stress on my desk. I come early and I leave late. Others were adhering to the normal working hours.

I had almost broken down before I realized that I was carrying too much work load. I was not being evaluated based on how much work I could do, but rather how much work I could delegate out which should make me available for other assignments.

I don’t know if I could not trust someone else to do the job. I was almost broken before I asked for help from the team members. Not only did they receive my plea for help with open arms, they were able to do the jobs better than I would have done it considering the workload I had.

The incident that day made me sit back and strategize afresh. Delegating was empowering the team members. Delegating was removing excessive workload from me. Delegating was motivating some of the team members. I felt so much better with delegation.

Is there any excess work you need to get done? Do you need to delegate?

For further reading on Delegation, please check here.

Separating Work from Life

Often times, I wondered why I had to listen to team members as they make excuses concerning situations like car, wife, family, health, money, etc.

That’s personal life, I thought. This is not bringing value to the table.

I then planned that for one week, I would say “NO” to any personal request. Actually, to say it with a sweet smile.

The test week came, and I needed only one day to see the impact of trying to remove personal life from work.

“Please I would like to see the doctor by 3p.m. today,” he said.
“My dear, please can you reschedule? We have deadlines to meet today. Won’t 5p.m. suit all of us?”
Reluctantly he replied, “Alright, I will reschedule.”

We did not meet the deadline. Team member was demotivated. He spent hours trying to get through to the doctor. He had a frown all through as he went about his work. The zeal and passion was no longer there. I tried to think of other times when I had accepted his reason to take an hour. Even if we missed a deadline, he was sure to put in extra hours to make up for the time lost.

Yes work is work and life is life, but we cannot separate these areas entirely. Someone who has personal issues may carry them to the workplace. This would ultimately affect his output at work.

I am still not in support of people taking excuses during working hours to solve personal problems. However, if it is for a genuine cause, there is no reason why such excuse should not be granted. And to take a step further, as “Manager” it was not enough to grant a request, but to ask about the progress of the personal issue. Has it been solved? Is everything okay? Knowing that someone cares could give some motivation at work.

We cannot separate work from life. Or can we?

Followers Follow

Team members grew from 2 to 3. It was really bothering me why the team members were not time conscious. They came late to work, except one who had to leave home very early lest he be caught in serious hold-up. In the afternoon, they took more time than their break hours. On this particular day, I came in from lunch by 2:15p.m. Break time is 12-1 or 1-2 but we just take 12 - 2. Team members were not on seat. They started strolling in from 2:30p.m.

I wanted to give all of them a query instantly but I was stopped by a warning that said, "Lead by Example." I held my peace. I decided to come to work early and actually monitor their timing. Same thing with lunch. I would return early from lunch and monitor their timing.

This was a week's exercise. I noticed that when I began coming to work early, their resumption time was readjusted to some minutes after I came in. Similarly, when I started returning from break early, their return time from break also readjusted. They were simply following their leader.

That was how I spoke change to the team. It was not a case of "Do as I say and not as I do". Anything I wanted them to do, I did it. I demonstrated that they could do it too. I only had justification to give them a query if they were doing wrong things which I was not doing.

For me, "Leading by Example" was one of the greatest things I learnt during my experience of learning to be a "Manager".